Nightmare
by The Last Performer
Summary: Mukuro's having a nightmare and Tsuna, with his amazing insight, sees what it is.


Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

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><p>It was the middle of the night after a party when Tsuna woke up. Everybody was asleep, leaning on the couch if there was no space on it, or sleeping chairs, or just lying on the floor. Lambo was snoring and talking in his sleep next to I-pin.<p>

He noticed, of course, that Kyoko was looking cute in the moonlight shining in from the window. She was leaning on her brother, his arms protectively around her. It took him a few moments to notice they weren't the only ones like that.

Across the room, leaning against the table leg, was Mukuro. Chikusa was leaning on his shoulder, and Mukuro had one arm around his shoulders. Ken was curled up (like a dog, Tsuna noted) next to Mukuro's legs, with Mukuro's hand on his back. Mukuro twitched and scowled in his sleep. He started to grind his teeth before Tsuna realized he was having a nightmare.

He reached down to wake him up, but as soon as he touched his shoulder, there was a flash.

Tsuna blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes before he could see anything. He heard things he knows he's heard before echo in the light.

_"He was a quiet guy – the kind you don't notice…"_

_"I would have been just like her…"_

He opened his eyes to a large warehouse. Then he got audio of the scene.

It was screaming.

Horrendously loud, bloodcurdling screaming. A gargling noise, like the sound of drowning, like the sound of dying, interrupted the voice before it could continue.

There was sobbing and whimpering beneath the yelling, he realized. He looked around.

A boy was sitting behind some boxes, bandages around his head, crying. Tsuna recognized him as Chikusa.

"This must be his dream," he realized as he looked around. He spotted Mukuro, a hand over one eye and blood all over his shirt.

Tsuna didn't realize the screaming had stopped until Ken emerged, face swollen and scarlet with blood, from a doorway leading to a lab room. He sobbed and went towards Chikusa.

It remained in his head that Ken had said Mukuro was the kind of guy you don't notice. He couldn't believe that this was the boy the feared fugitive was.

There was a blinding light.

He heard more screaming. But it was different. Deeper. Older. And shorter. Then there were thumps.

Tsuna recognized this.

Ken and Chikusa stood in the doorway, in are, at the boy they'd never noticed before. Everyone died when Mukuro's powers awakened, when he was in hell, thanks to the Estraneo family.

"Let's go together," he said, a smile on his face. Because he didn't want to leave the two that lived through all that he had, the two that knew the same hell he did.

It wasn't a dream at all.

It was Mukuro, reliving memories in his sleep.

There was another blinding, white light. "It hurts," he heard. It was Ken's voice, whining through tears and swollen gums. "Mukuro-san, it really hurts."

"I know, Ken," Mukuro sighed.

Tsuna could finally see Mukuro as he rubbed Ken's cheeks.

"Doesn't your eye hurt, Mukuro-sama?" Chikusa asked. He had both hands on his head. Mukuro shook his head.

"But look, I got you something," he smiled and held a knit hat out for Chikusa. In his other hand, for Ken, he had gum. "Chew it slowly, it'll help. And the hat is soft, so it will feel good on your head."

They both smiled, and Tsuna realized right away that they still had those habits.

There was a final white light, and Tsuna heard the Vendice, then Mukuro saying, _"go ahead. I'll break out and meet you two later. Go!" _before he was thrown back in to darkness.

He heard himself gasping.

He looked up to see one blue and one red eye staring at him. Mukuro frowned at Tsuna in the darkness.

"The whole time," Tsuna began, "you've been helping them. But you lied. Your eye does hurt sometimes… doesn't it?"

"It's not my eye that hurts, Tsunayoshi," Mukuro whispered. "It's being in Hell that hurts more than anything. And, well, everybody has their own comforts. For Ken and for Chikusa, it's gum and a knit cap." He smiled, a little.

"So… even now… your eye and – and the memories…"

"I'm the only one that remembers it clearly. It's hell, afterall, it's what they wanted me to do. But leave it alone, Tsunayoshi. It was a dream and nothing more. I mean, men sometimes dream they're butterflies, hm?"

Tsuna made a face at him. Mukuro smiled like always. Chikusa was still wearing a knit hat, and Ken had fallen asleep with gum in his mouth. Tsuna got up after Mukuro told him to go to bed, used the bathroom, and fell quickly back asleep.

Mukuro still looked in to the dark, with his hands on his own comforts – the two he took care of all this time. He closed both eyes – one seeing Earth, and the other, Hell. He smiled a little as he heard Chikusa's soft breathing and Ken's light snoring. He was definitely not in Hell. He was a human, on earth.

And, he thought, maybe he would dream of being a butterfly.

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><p>I made an odd reference to something that might be a little obscure. To explain it, basically, a famous Eastern philosopher said he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly, but then went on to think that maybe he was a butterfly dreaming of being a man. Mukuro sort of references that, though it's up to you why he brought it up.<p>

Also, am I the only person who imagined the Estraneo family tortured _more_ than 3 children with their experiments and Mukuro, Ken, and Chikusa are the only ones that lived?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review!


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